This invention relates to a method and an apparatus for making a uniform, continuous sliver, wherein the tuft column is measured in a tuft shaft as a function of a deviation which, in turn, is measured at the running sliver supplied by the tuft shaft.
In a known method of the above-outlined type, a signal representing the deviation of the sliver weight from a desired value is applied to a regulator which accordingly varies the rpm of a blower generating a pressure in a sole tuft shaft. With this method, sliver fluctuations may be measured, for example, downstream of the carding machine. The setting member and the blower are located externally of the tuft shaft. This process has the disadvantage that the regulator output affects a continuously operating setting member; consequently, the pressure difference prevailing in the tuft shaft varies continuously. Further, in the above-outlined method, only in case of a continuously operating setting member can the regulation be effected beyond a predetermined deviation from a desired value. It is a further disadvantage of the above-outlined method that its application is limited to an arrangement of the setting member externally of the tuft shaft and thus it is limited to a regulation of the pressure drop in a single tuft shaft.